Tuesday, 25 November 2014

Captain Kidd and the Greenock Road

He never slept.

Or
at least that was the impression he gave and it had served him well
throughout his life. He might only have been on this earth seventeen
summers but he was brave, respected by his men and ready to face any
foe. Everything he did was in the pursuit of treasure and in the search
for those great adventures.

He
was Billy to his friends, at least the small number whom he trusted,
but to his enemies and his crew he was Captain William Kidd; seadog,
pirate, thief and killer.

Now he was resting with his eyes closed and his legs raised on the deck of the Greenock Road. This
was his vessel and it carried the name of the town that was etched on
his heart - and soon the ship would have a new worthy cargo, a
passenger, a man by the name of Archibald Campbell known to world as the
Earl of Argyll. The Earl’s family would pay very handsomely, very
handsomely indeed to have their own rascal returned in one piece.

BOOM!

There was a shot across the bow of the Greenock Road and
then another which hit the stern, knocking Kidd flying back and sending
wood splinters into the eyes of those close. He crawled to the edge and
tried to look through his eye-piece but there was too much smoke. His
first thoughts were of the excise men but then he saw the flag, it was
the dogs who normally lay off of Tobermory and their ship, the Black Death.

“We’re trapped Cap’n, there’s them at our stern and that monster over there.” One-eyed Harry always saw the worst of things.

One-eyed
was right ‘though, there were only two ways out of this. He couldn’t
outrun the larger vessel but maybe, with the luck of the devil, he could
find a passage through the monster called Corryvreckan. That would
allow them to take shelter in a small cove at the back of the isle of
Scarba and let their troubles pass.

Corryvreckan
was said to be the largest whirlpool in the known world and everyone
could tell you bad stories about the place. With the seas being at a
flood tide, he could hear the roar even now and they were at least a
half hour’s sail from the eye. The waves spread out like a web and could
easily reach up to thirty feet or more. This was going to be a ride
that would see them safely home or take every last one of them to hell.

When times were hard, which they always seemed to be these days, Kidd had raided the Black Death
on more than one occasion. He’d wait until many of its crew were ashore
and then his gang would steal whatever they could. He’d thought about
taking the Black Death itself but he didn’t have the men to get it safely away.

It
meant that if they caught him it wouldn’t just be death, it would be a
long slow agonising one for him and his crew - this made the dangerous
transit through Corryvreckan the more attractive option.

Kidd
lived by one philosophy and that was, he knew he had the ability to do
anything. He did it and he succeeded. If you thought of failure you were
half way there as his father, the old minister, used to tell him every
day of his early life. So he was going to take his ship through the
Corryvreckan at flood tide and he was going to survive.

Those on the Black Death knew
these waters just as well as Kidd and perhaps even better, but Kidd was
certain that they had not sailed the Corry’ at flood otherwise he would
have heard of it – and what would be the point? All you had to do was
wait for slack water and pass safely through but there was not enough
time for that, so he had to gamble on the fact they wouldn’t follow
him.

He sailed the Greenock Road
around to the east towards the isle of Jura as this avoided the
Pinnacle, a rock-stack that lay just below the surface and one of the
reasons for the Corry's existence.

Looking over the stern, Kidd could see that the Black Death
was gaining on him and despite the turbulence in the water the larger
ship fired another cannonball which luckily only hit a corner. There
wasn’t much damage but old Master Curry, the lookout, was now heading
for the bottom of the sea.

“They can’t follow us through here. They will not follow us.” Kidd shouted to the men.

Tweeky Adams shouted back “I don’t think they can hear you Cap’n. Look”

Sure
enough they were coming up fast and the waves were growing in size, it
looked like neither ship was going to make it. Then one of the sea gods
whispered in Kidd’s ear and a smile lit up his face.

“About. Hard about”

“But we might go turtle, Cap’n” cried One-eyed Harry.

“If
we go through the Corry’ on this heading we’ll capsize anyway” cried
Kidd through the increasing maelstrom and yet he was still smiling – he
was loving this. So about turn they did, causing the Greenock Road to sweep out towards Jura. The Black Death however, being a large vessel, shot past with a very surprised crew all staring at that last manoeuvre of Kidd’s.

“How, in all that's God given, did he do that?” shouted Hair-lip Hansa who was hanging upside down from the poop deck of the Death.

That was the final sighting of the Black Death as
it disappeared into the whirlpool and into folklore. Songs would be
sung and stories would be told of the ghostly figures who haunted the
Corryvreckan.

Kidd was just happy but not surprised to have escaped once again.

They
waited until slack water to see if there were any survivors but not
even a stick of wood floated to the top, the vessel must have sunk
without trace and in doing so taking all hands.

Kidd
had a smile to himself then ordered the men to set sail for Saint
Agnes’ Bay, a small inlet to the south of Inveraray on Loch Fyne.

They
could wait there for the Earl’s ship, the one taking him to Edinburgh
by a route around the top of Scotland. This sea trip was safer for the
Earl than taking the coach and horses through Glen Douglas and down the
Rest-and-be-thankful where bandits lay in wait for any, and all,
well-healed traveller. Very few ever made it to Arrochar alive.

Both
Kidd and Samson, the blackest of the dogs and the Cap’n and leader of
the Tobermory gang had played a waiting game with the Earl. They had
both steered well clear of attacking the ship, as each time they did so
the military on board would have doubled. So to let the Earl think that
he had safe passage was to have the opposite effect. The Earl had fewer
men on board each trip, leaving him wide open for that one attack, the
one that Kidd planned to carry out today.

Kidd
had another Greenock lad working in the kitchens of Inveraray castle
who knew by the food he was being asked to prepare, that a voyage by the
Earl was imminent. The Greenock Road had to be moving at speed to attack the Earl’s ship so it needed advance warning of the movements.

Kidd
and the kitchen boy had rehearsed their moves several times, each time
Kidd would let the Earl’s ship pass safely. Kidd has several pigeons on
board, some for eating and some had been trained to fly to the castle by
the Earl’s staff. They were used to send messages back to Inveraray as
the ship sailed around the coast. The kitchen boy had stolen some of
them and they had been passed on to Kidd.

When
Kidd was sitting in St. Agnes’ Bay he would place a small blue ring
around one of the pigeon’s leg then release it. The boy would always
watch for pigeons returning, if one had a blue ring, he knew that Kidd
was waiting.

When the Earl’s ship, the Queen Margaret, was
ready to set sail, the boy would get his father to fire a shot high
above the woods of Loch Fyne. It could be heard way over towards St
Agnes’ Bay. No one had ever put the shot and the ship’s departure
together as nothing ever happened.

This time they were ready, the Greenock Road had a full set of sails and was heading off down Loch Fyne, all the time gathering useful knots. The Queen Margaret rounded the rocky head just as Greenock Road’s one cannon fired on her, then came along side.

It was a quick and clever manoeuvre from Kidd that found the crew of the Margaret completely
overwhelmed. The pirates boarded the ship and the Earl was tied and
stowed within thirty minutes. The few military men who were on the
vessel were either put to the sword or thrown overboard. Normally Kidd
did this on the high seas when there was nowhere for them to swim to but
the speed and success of this kidnap had pleased him, he was willing to
let some of them go.

The
plan was to take the Earl to a small island near Rum and hold up there a
few days, word would be sent back to the mainland regarding the ransom.

When the crew had taken what they needed from the Queen Margaret it was set ablaze, mainly to let the good folks of Argyll know what had just taken place.

The
Earl and Kidd dined together that evening and found each other’s
company agreeable. Kidd even mentioned that in another life the two of
them might have become friends. They drank to that point several times
and to a few more besides.

When
the Earl, who insisted that Kidd call him Archibald, finally collapsed
at the table, the Captain went above to take in some sea air and think
about things.For instance, he knew that someday soon he would spread his
young wings and head for a far flung place like New York City - stolen
from the Dutch by the English and most definitely a place he could own,
but until then the waters of the West were his hunting ground.

Was
that a flicker of light he could see on the Port side? It looked almost
like a ship. The sky went dark once more and although he was usually
sharp eyed he felt the brandy had perhaps taken its toll.

But
there it was again but this time he could see it wasn’t a ship, it was
where they were headed in fact. It was the little village of Cancarn a
pirate haven especially as far Captain William Kidd was concerned, they
loved him there but now the place was ablaze.

The
Captain called for all hands on deck, the sooner they made Cancarn, the
sooner they could save what was left of it, that included his woman,
Isabel, a bonnie lass of sixteen.

By
the time they berthed and headed for shore the sun was already up and
they could see that the town was now only a shell, there was smoke
rising everywhere.

Cancarn was a ruin.

When
they landed One-eyed Harry ran ahead for he too had a woman in port,
Rose. She was the sister of Isabel and both sisters lived at the village
pub.

There
wasn’t much left of the place and in what was once the corner of the
bar was Old Jake, now a shrivelled frightened old man.

Kidd
had left the Earl back on the ship with most of his crew on the slim
chance that this was a trap. Although he was sure that the King’s men
could not have heard the news about what had happened at Inveraray and
then crossed here so fast. No, this was the work of someone else.

And his question was answered when One-eyed Harry carried Old Jake back.

“He says this were all Samson’s doing with the help of those on the Black Death.”

“He’s sure it was the Black Death?”

“Swears his life on it, and they’ve taken the women – all of them – you’ll get them back when he gets the Earl.”

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Stealing Moses

Thank You, Mr F.

About Me

I was born in the West Coast of Scotland - a beautiful part of the world. Grew up in Paris, France and Woodstock, New York. I studied writing at college and gained a Masters. I wrote a short film 'Stealing Moses' which was selected by the British Urban Film Festival, 2015 and was supported by Channel 4. I have been selected to pitch at BAFTA, twice. I trained through TAPS at Emmerdale and The Bill.